News
Local

Lucknow's lone grocery store Knechtel Food Market to close July 27

Brian Knechtel, owner and president of Knechtel Food Market, is pictured in reflection talking to a customer about his store’s closure, which was announced on Facebook and in the noticed seen here taped to the grocery store’s front doors. (Darryl Coote/Reporter)

After 30 years of business in Lucknow, Knechtel Food Market announced it would be closing its doors July 27 after failing to come to an agreement on rent with the property’s landowner.

Lucknow’s lone grocery store made the announcement on its Facebook page Thursday, July 14, 2016.

President and owner of Knechtel Food Market, Brian Knechtel, told The Sentinel he and his wife, Kathy, were “disappointed” that after 30 years they would be shuttering their store.

“We did not want to end this way,” he said. “We certainly were prepared to stay here longer if we could make it work for us … Unfortunately, we had to come to the point where we said we have to look at moving on.”

Knechtel said he and his wife were “unable to negotiate the rent to reflect the current economic situation in Lucknow.”

He clarified that the landlord was not trying to increase the rent.

According to Township of Huron-Kinloss records, the landlord is numbered company 686687 Ontario Ltd.

Though Knechtel would not reveal the name of the company to The Sentinel, he did say he is one of its three shareholders.

He said following the failed rent negotiations he tried to acquire the shares held by the other two parties, but when that was also unsuccessful he and his wife decided to close the store.

“Because of that we’ve decided we had to make this decision. We’ve been here for 30 years. We appreciate the effect it has on the community. We’re certainly not ignorant that it’s going to have a fairly wide-ranging effect. There’s roughly 20 employees. We understand that it’s rough for them as well, but we have to make a decision based on a business basis,” he said.

The Sentinel has been unable to name the other shareholders of the numbered company by press time.

According to the Facebook post, the landlord gave Knechtel Food Market 15 days from July 12 to vacate the leased premises unless Knechtel paid the rent the company had set. The post continues that the landlord refused the store’s request for a leeway of 60 days to close the store.

Taped to the store’s front door and large panoramic side window was a notice informing its customers of the impending closure. Many were shocked by the news.

“I’m very disappointed,” said local resident Steve Neeb on exiting the store where he shops four to five times a week. “... It’s the lifeblood of a little town, right? It’s very disappointing. We need a grocery store in town and this has been here for 30 years keeping us going.”

Steve Bushell said its closure is a shame, and now people will be taking their money out of Lucknow for daily necessities.

“Everybody’s going to have to go into town,” he said. “You lose your local business, you lose the convenience of buying in town. You just got to go out of town.”

Cathy Rutledge of Holyrood was shopping at Knechtel Food Market Friday for bread and milk and other items to get one through the week, she said.

“It’s pretty sad. All the people that live here that don’t drive, they’re going to have to go to Wingham or Goderich,” she said.

The store is one of the bigger businesses in Lucknow, she said, and its closure might have a negative economic effect of the town.

Asked where she would now go for groceries, she said probably Kincardine.